First of all, many thanks to those of you who have written to us and offered your best wishes and good thoughts for recovery. I have many dear friends and as revealed by the Blog, I have the support of a loving family. You should see the banner that was made to welcome me home.
I have renewed respect for my daughter in law Nancy and the others among you who have gone through chemo and also endured those lonely desperate days that follow when nothing except lying still seems appealing and all food even imagining it is pretty awful. I try not to think about food as the process of swallowing anything gags me… however, I am also woefully remiss in drinking enough fluids as well. Nothing tastes good nothing seems inviting except spur of the moment things. At any rate Nancy has been there and she knows what to ask me and can make good suggestions about things such as chewing on ice to get fluids without gagging.
Young Jeff has been a trooper. He has gone on every MD visit since the diagnosis. He took me up to Riverside and stayed in the room with me during round 1. Even offering to change beds with me when the very attractive nurse said she would be back shortly in the middle of the night to rub crème all over my body.
I have been taking meds for nausea and over the counter Tylenol for pain. I started getting an incessant deep headache on Wed and found that Tylenol was not enough. I called Riverside on Thursday am and they said go to the emergency room now. The reasoning was that the punctate objects seen in my brain MRI could be causing bleeding as a result of the chemo and so this needed to be checked out. 12 hours later I was home with the assurance that there was no bleeding and that my blood data were all on the path to restoring themselves to pre-chemo levels… including the platelets.
The headaches remain but now I have Percocet and am taking fewer of these than the Tylenol. The possible cause of the headaches… head and neck posture during lying down and sleeping….don’t know yet. Rosemarie went out and bought new pillows for my bed.
It is Saturday morning as I write this. Early this am I started to feel like getting up and getting some things done and found myself even entertaining that idea much longer than earlier in the week and so maybe I am turning the corner on this. It is a week today since I got the last of the first round drugs and so perhaps a week is needed.
Again thanks to all and to my extremely supportive and loving family.
One more thing…today the 26th is my parent’s 73rd anniversary. And it is exactly 9 months till my birthday….go figure
jbg
Dear Jeff,
ReplyDeleteMany thanks for sending us the information on the blog updating therapy progress, and the great pictures both earlier and now. You have a truly beautiful family to be very, very proud of. We are glad that you finished the first round of this challenging therapy. We just read your installment for today. We are sorry you've been so uncomfortable, but know you've had excellent care. The lack of bleeding and improved blood results are a great sign, and also that your sense of humor appears to be chemo-resistant.
We are both fine. Oklahoma spring is threatening , but this time of year is always dynamic; warm and sunny one day , wintery the next. Teresa is typing and wants to add that her daffodils are starting to bloom.
I just returned from a trip to Iowa State University to give my first seminar on water dragon work done in Australia. You may remember that my former masters student, Rory, is now in the doctoral program there. My seminar was well attended and received, and I met with many interesting faculty and students. It seems to be a very good program for Rory. Teresa is staying very busy responding to the needs of families from the 45th Infantry Brigade. The deployment ceremony was about a week ago and many of the service members left today for training before deploying to Afghanistan in the early summer.
We are sending healing thoughts your way and keep you and your family close in our hearts.
Love, Troy and Teresa
Dear Jeff, I am thinking of you every day and waiting for the signal from Rosemarie that you are up for a brief visit. Saturday, the 26th, found us driving to Redlands to visit John Benson (and Joan) and Gerry and Jann Forth. They all send their love. But to celebrate mom and dad's anniversary, I made sure there were flowers at their grave on Friday. I knew you'd want that taken care of.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure all the nurses wanted to rub creme all over your body, as do most of my girlfriends. :)
Love you, brother,
Dine